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Re: Gas prices are highest ever for this time of year

Originally Posted by Samhain

The oil industry will become the alternative energy industry when oil starts to run out. Or did you think they would just fold? Also, please read the previous link, as it will show that production isn't down, and demand isn't up, so "Obama's policies" on oil use/production isn't causing the price hike.

Right now, there isn't a market for an alternative to oil on a profitable scale. That's why we've seen plenty of "green" bankruptcies and the tanking of electric cars(Leaf, Volt). There isn't money to be made in that realm despite the government's best effort at subsidizing the sector. The tech just isn't ready for mass production and consumption.

On top of that, our infrastructure isn't ready for a spike in electrical demand. We are shuttering coal fired power plants left and right, shifting their production to existing facilities, pushing the limits of production. Until we can increase our electrical production, develop better electrical storage facilities on both a small footprint and large, we aren't ready for non-fuel driven vehicles.

The oil reserves are many years from being depleted but our ability to keep up with production, refining (no new refineries in 30yrs), shipping and competing for those sources will drive up prices. Hydraulic fracking, shale/sand refining, sideways, ocean and deep well drilling, transportation/storage all are driving up costs, not including geopolitical strategies involving the ME. No I don't believe Obama's policies alone are driving up prices, though they do have an effect on the mindset of investors who do affect the markets controlling prices. Demand will ultimately also affect costs where our economy literally thrives off consumption.

The only realistic alternative to oil is electric right now, unless some sort of new cheap renewable source like hydrogen becomes available. And a few solar panels per house would solve any extra energy drain from the grid. The tech has been ready but fiscal and political roadblocks are produced to reduce interest in change because too much money is made with the status quo.

Einstein, "science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

Re: Gas prices are highest ever for this time of year

Originally Posted by Samhain

The oil industry will become the alternative energy industry when oil starts to run out.

I'm not sure how that makes sense. Would you explain?

Originally Posted by Samhain

Right now, there isn't a market for an alternative to oil on a profitable scale. That's why we've seen plenty of "green" bankruptcies and the tanking of electric cars(Leaf, Volt). There isn't money to be made in that realm despite the government's best effort at subsidizing the sector. The tech just isn't ready for mass production and consumption.

For real? Have a look at this...

But Volt sales (like the Nissan Leaf's) are still limited by short supply, not lack of demand. There are waiting lists for both.

"Volts are being sold as quickly as they arrive," a GM spokesperson added. "We remain on target to sell every one of the 10,000 units we will build this year for U.S. consumers. Demand continues to significantly outstrip supply, [and] we expect demand to exceed supply for most, if not all, of the 2012 model year."

An amazing 97 percent of Volt owners say they are "completely" or "very" satisfied, while the other three percent are merely "satisfied." They report driving more than 1,000 miles (or about 30 days), on average, before refilling their gas tanks, and that two-thirds of those miles are on electric "grid" power. Nearly 90 percent of those who traded in vehicles for a 2011 Volt traded non-GM cars and are new to Chevrolet, and 35 percent considered no other vehicle.

We have such an abundance of oil and gas that oil companies are exporting them in record numbers, thereby decreasing our supply and causing the price to increase.

I think (to put it simply) they just sell it at the global market, which is where we also buy most of ours. Just because we drill here doesn't it make it all ours, right? We haven't nationalized all our energies.

No, but it punches holes in the GOP theory that if we just build more refineries here, gas prices will go down.

Everything politicians say are at least partial lies. If you cornered them on it they'd hide behind the fact that, yes, technically increasing production leads to increases in supply leads to comparatively cheaper petrol. Eventually.

I'm no oil expert but I have to assume since multinational corporations do our oil extracting that ramping up extraction just feeds global demand and impacts things like trade deficits more than what we ultimately pay at the pump. It's not like we extract 87 octane from the earth and plop it into our own corner gas stations...